You Once Did

8

"Caleb's... A special case," my mother began her explanation, not wanting to take too long to explain the situation, "Shortly before your mother passed away, we were in the grocery. A boy walked up to us and asked why we were holding hands and shopping for groceries together. When we explained, he began to rant on about how disgusting we were and made a scene."

"What happened after?" I asked, intrigued by the story, "And why haven't you told me about this before?"

"The boy's father came and excused him, he made up for it over lunch," She continued, "Which is how I learned of his name. Which is why when you said that you guys were friends, I told you he was bad news."

I remember when my other mother passed away. I loved her so much.

"So yeah, now you know the story," My mother sighed soon after getting up and leaving the kitchen.

I felt even more uncomfortable now.

-

I stayed in bed all day. My mother was kind enough to supply my room with tissues. I was spoiled with breakfast, lunch and dinner in bed. I had already called Ashley and explained everything by the time it was afternoon. I didn't want to go to school tomorrow. Caleb and I fought, I found out he's homophobic too. What was I going to do?

-

I walked into the school with my head down, I knew people were staring at me. Rumour probably spread. Caleb and I were most likely going to break up.

Ashley and David were at my locker, waiting for me. Ashley attacked me with a hug as she saw me. She held me there for a few minutes, making the moment way sadder than it had to be. I heard David clear his throat and his eyes darted behind me. I expected this. I turned around and saw Caleb standing there. He scratched the back of his neck, I could tell that he was desperately sorry.

"I'm... Sorry?" Caleb said, making an attempt at apologizing.

"Why do you seem confused on what you're apologizing for?" I asked, tilting my head to the side as I stared at him dead in the eyes.

"Because I don't know what I did wrong?" Caleb muttered, his voice uneasy.

"So you're apologizing for no reason?" I laughed slightly at the end of my question, "Well, I'm sorry I only exist when you need something. And this time, you needed a girlfriend to keep your reputation up, right?"

He stood there, shuffling around his feet in the spot.

I sighed, face palming at the situation, "So what? You're not going to try to beg for me to forgive you now?"

Caleb shook his head, looking down at his feet. What was he thinking about?

"It's not like that, Zoey," Caleb started, leaving me on a cliffhanger.

"What's it like then?" I was yet to notice the entire hallway of people were staring at us.

Caleb opened his mouth to answer, but then the bell rang.

Zoey shook her head and took Ashley's arm, pulling her to class.

Caleb's POV

I sighed, once I heard the bell, I walked away. I had no reason to be sad about this. I didn't even have an excuse for this.

Zoey's POV

Ashley nudged my shoulder, "What was all that about?" Ashley asked, looking at Zoey.

"No idea," I muttered back to Ashley as we made our way to class.

"Whatever it was, you guys sounded as if you were from a cringy wattpad book," Ashley added at the end, making me realize how stupid that conversation actually was.

I just nodded, while Ashley and I walked over to our seats. I sighed, looking at the door, watching the class scramble to their seats. After a minute or so, our teacher finally walked in. Our teacher did the usual roll call, and started the lesson.

-

After awhile, the bell finally rang letting the students know it's their lunch break. The class quickly rushed out of the door, while Ashley and I waited for the rest of the class to get out. Once we got out of the class, we made our way to our lockers, grabbing our books for our next classes, soon making our way to the cafeteria, we sat at our usual spot.

Caleb's POV

I was looking around the cafeteria for a place to sit, I spotted the group, walking towards them. "Hey, can I sit with you guys?" I asked.